situation:The method of execution is injection. The prisoner can eventually choose electrocution or hanging. The sentence is determined by a jury. The death row is located at Walla Walla. As for the clemency process, the Governor has sole authority to grant clemency.

Bill to abolish death penalty dies. SB 6052, which removes the death penalty as an option for aggravated 1st-degree murder cases and replaces it with life in prison without the possibility of parole, died in House committee on Monday. The Senate approved the bill on Feb. 15 in a 26-22 vote. Attorney General Bob Ferguson is hopeful to get this legislation done next session. "I am deeply disappointed, but my disappointment is tempered somewhat by the historic progress the bill made this year," Ferguson said. According to the governor's office, Gov. Inslee "is encouraged that the bill made good progress this year and hopes that eventually Washington will join the list of states that are choosing to end the death penalty." The effort got an extra push this year when Republican King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg testified in favor of ending the death penalty during a Senate Law and Justice Committee hearing. All 3 argue the death penalty is too costly, doesn't offer closure for victim's families, and is applied unequally. Groups concerned about those wrongfully convicted ending up on death row have also been supporting the effort.

(Source: mynorthwest.com, 02/03/2018)

25 February 2018 :

The House Judiciary Committee has passed a bill (SB 6052) to abolish the death penalty in Washington, and the measure now awaits a potential vote by the full House. The bill passed on a 7-6 party line vote. The Senate passed the bill on a 26-22 bipartisan vote last week. The measure would remove capital punishment as a sentencing option for aggravated murder and mandate instead a sentence of life in prison without possibility of parole. There has been a moratorium on the death penalty since 2014, put in place by Gov. Jay Inslee. The most recent execution in the state came in 2010.

(Source: Associated Press, 22/02/2018)

16 February 2018 :

Senate Passes Death Penalty Abolition Bill. A bipartisan bill to abolish the death penalty in Washington passed the state Senate on a 26-22 vote. SB 6052 now moves to the House of Representatives, where the chairwoman of the House Judiciary Committee has said it will be given a hearing. "Today, the Washington State Senate took an historic, bipartisan vote, passing Attorney General-requested legislation to eliminate the death penalty and replace it with life in prison without possibility of parole," said incumbent Democratic Attorney General Bob Ferguson. He, his Republican predecessor Rob McKenna, and Governor Jay Inslee had asked the legislature to take up the measure. The bill also received support from Republican King County prosecutor Dan Satterberg, and five Republican senators voted for its passage. During an emotional debate on the floor of the senate, Sen. Mark Miloscia (R - Federal Way) told lawmakers, "all people deserve to live." Miloscia, who is one of the bill's co-sponsors, said, "I'm here to ask for mercy, literally for the worst among us." Sen. Maureen Walsh (R - Walla Walla), another sponsor of the bill, said "We spend a lot of money, our tax money, appealing these decisions, and we have done this for many, many years. I have no sympathy for people that kill people, that's not why I'm doing this. I'm doing this maybe because I feel like it's somewhat our responsibility as legislators to vet these issues here in this forum, in this venue." A third co-sponsor, Sen. Reuven Carlyle (D - Seattle), raised ongoing concerns about the risk of executing innocent defendants. "You cannot read a front page story about DNA mistakes that has someone in jail for 35 years and not be jolted to the core," he said. "That has transformed the public's view of this issue." Governor Inslee, who imposed a moratorium on executions in 2014, described the vote as reflecting “an increasing recognition of the public that this is not an effective and certainly an unequal administration of justice and is no longer acceptable in the state of Washington.” "I hope Washington joins the growing number of states that are choosing to end the death penalty," he said. Before the final vote, Senators voted down two amendments that would have narrowed the death penalty, but not eliminated it, and a third amendment that would have put the issue to voters in a public initiative. Ferguson called on the House to join the Senate in passing the measure. The bill, he said, provided the House "the opportunity to abolish our broken death penalty."

The Washington State Senate's Committee on Law and Justice has passed SB 6052, which would repeal the state's death penalty. The vote was 4-3. The bill passed the Committee on a party line and now heads to the Rules Committee.

Hands off Cain is an international league of citizens and parliamentarians for the abolition of the death penalty in the world. It is a non-profit, non-violent, transnational and trans-national Partito Radicale founded in Brussels in 1993 and recognized in 2005 by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a development co-operation NGO.